Disclaimer: No infringement, bla bla bla
A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews!!! It's fun to keep people hanging on the edge!
Chapter 7
Tuesday Morning.
Nester pulled his truck into the driveway at the Petries residence, rap music blaring loudly from the stereo, and revved the engine before he cut it off. The lanky Asian FBI agent was dressed in baggy shorts, flip flops and an oversized tank top. The reflective Ray Ban sunglasses firmly planted on his face were secured to his neck with a fluorescent green keeper.
"Nice truck," Mulder commented as he walked down the sidewalk to greet his friend. He had called Nester while on his run that morning and invited him over for a little hunting expedition. He'd asked him to to dress the part, of course.
Nester laughed. It was an old International Scout pickup on a lift kit with huge tires. The chassis was at least four feet off the ground. It was painted orange with black racing stripes running up the middle of the hood.
"Ya like that?" Nester smiled. "It's my nephew's."
"Oh, yeah, that fits right in with the neighborhood," Mulder said as he walked around the truck. "We might need to take a test drive later," he added, nodding approvingly at his friend's ride. He noticed Shroeder's van out of the corner of his eye and watched nonchalantly as his neighbor crept down the street past the Petries house.
"Everyone's looking," Nester commented, staring at the neighbor behind the security of the sunglasses. He reached in the truck and pulled out an oversized duffle bag, slinging it over his shoulder.
"I'm sure he isn't finding it aesthetically pleasing," Mulder replied as he and Nester walked to the front door of the house. "I'll probably get more hate mail in my mailbox later."
Nester walked into the foyer and looked around at the house. "Nice place," he said nodding his head. "Not exactly your style … looks like something Dris would live in."
"Yeah, it wears on you, too…. Laura said I was getting too domestic yesterday," Mulder grimaced and arched his eyebrows.
"Where is she anyway?"
"She went to breakfast with the "ladies" and then she's running some errands, which should give us a couple of hours."
"You tell her about …." Nester started inclining his head.
"Not exactly," he sighed heavily. "She's been a little jumpy the past few days. I'm concerned that she is getting a little too close to this case. And yesterday wasn't a good day … major sunburn and sick to her stomach. I don't want to say anything until I have proof. Did you bring the gear?"
Nester set the bag down and unzipped it to reveal the state-of-the-art mobile video equipment. "Lock and load, baby," Nester proclaimed, handing the unit to Mulder. He pulled a pair of jeans, a t-shirt and Caterpillar work boots from the bottom of the bag and excused himself to the washroom to change. By the time he emerged, Mulder had the unit ready to go and helped Nester into the utility jacket that doubled as a bullet proof vest.
Nester shrugged his shoulders to adjust the vest and was fiddling with the camera on the ear piece when he turned to talk to Mulder. "I didn't bring audio … I hope we don't need it."
Mulder had placed the monitor for the mobile unit in an empty cabinet above the breakfast bar and was fiddling with the adjustments when he looked up at his friend. The sight of the camera and mini flashlight hanging off Nester's ear caught him off guard and he burst out laughing.
"What?" Nester questioned him.
"You look like a Borg," Mulder chuckled. "Resistance is futile," he said, mocking the famous Borg tag line.
"Dork," Nester replied with a smirk. "How's the video feed?"
"Crystal clear," Mulder answered. He adjusted the display one final time and shut the cabinet doors. He slipped on his own utility jacket, slid the holster for his gun onto his belt, and then secured his weapon into it. Mulder handed an extra ammo clip to Nester and stuck one for himself in his back pocket. "Okay, that's it. Let's go." He motioned to the trap door and took the lead into the crawl space.
The two men dropped into the tunnel and started their trek through the labyrinth below the street. Mulder carried a government issued GPS tracking device and a map of the neighborhood in his utility vest pocket for reference. They walked in the direction of Big Mike's house first, checking for any anomalies in the underground terrain. They had been searching the area about 15 minutes when Nester finally broke the ice between them.
"So you and Scully seemed to have worked things out," he blurted out. "You were rather 'friendly' on Sunday."
"Yeah. I guess you could say that we're back to couple status," Mulder answered. "There are still a couple of open wounds though."
"Like …."
Mulder paused and looked over at his friend. "Like … she thinks I slept with Diana."
"Recently?"
"Yeah, the night of our fight," Mulder replied.
"You banged the Fowl the night of the fight?" Nester questioned him in disbelief.
"No, idiot … I didn't sleep with Diana that night! Scully thinks that because I was with her…just like you and Dris did when I told you at the bar," Mulder grumbled. "Sometimes I can't figure her."
Nester nodded in silence as he walked. "What part? Her jealousy fueled imagination? Or the fact that, if left alone with Diana in a small room, Scully would scratch her eyeballs out?"
Mulder started laughing and shook his head. "All of the above."
"Well, for the record, man to man … When was the last time you screwed Fowley?"
Mulder tilted his head as he thought about the question. "The day we left for Galena."
"And does Scully know that?"
"Hell, no! I've never discussed it. In fact, I rarely talk about Diana around Scully because it ticks her off," Mulder replied. The tunnel began to narrow in front of them and he stepped behind Nester and the video camera to allow him to lead the way.
"Well, my suggestion is that you keep your relationship with 'the fowl' on a work basis only from now on," Nester called back to him. "Sometimes you need to pick your battles, and that doesn't seem like one worth fighting, especially since she keeps interesting company these days."
"I have kept my distance from Diana lately, but I don't think I should have to cut my ties with her," Mulder commented as he walked. He kept scanning the sides of the tunnel for a sign of something. "We're just friends."
"Dude," Nester retorted. "Scully is jealous and she isn't going to get over it. If you want less drama in your life you need to set the bird free."
"Okay, that's the part that I don't get … the jealousy factor. Why is she jealous over Diana? She went to dinner with her former boyfriend before we left on this case and I'm not jealous."
"Was he hitting on her right in front of you?" Nester replied sarcastically
"Not exactly … And by the way, Diana does not hit on me right in front of Scully," Mulder remarked defensively.
"Oh, no not right in front ... just off to the side!" Nester laughed. "Where everyone else can see!"
"Enough about Diana!" Mulder's feathers were ruffled. I get it already, he thought as he trudged behind Nester. The passage opened up to a Y intersection in front of them.
"Where are we?" Nester asked, nodding his head toward the street.
Mulder fished the GPS tracker out of his pocket and scanned the display along with the map. "One street east and about eight blocks south of my house. We're about two streets from Gogolak's place and about five blocks south of the park." Mulder looked at the display and then up at the top of the tunnel. "Let's head to the left first." He pointed in front of them to the left.
Nester started off down the left passage, walking in silence as they went. He noticed that the walls of the tunnel were different here than in the stretch of tunnel by Mulder's house and he stopped to look at them more closely. The dirt seemed moist here, as if it had recently been disturbed.
"Hey, Mulder," he waved his friend over. "Notice the dirt is different here."
Mulder pulled on a pair of latex gloves and dug his fingers into the wall. He pulled his hand back and noticed a red substance mixed in with the dirt.
Nester stared down at his hand. "Is that blood?"
Mulder moved it around on his gloved hand. "Hard to tell. It looks like the stuff that was on the back of the Jeep … but, considering this place was built on a garbage dump, it could just be strawberry jelly." He dumped the dirt into an evidence bag and stuffed it in his pocket.
"It's different down here, though," Nester pointed out. "Up by your place it's dry and set. This looks like someone over watered it."
"Or just planted something in it," Mulder commenting looking at the subdivision map.
"Looks like 671 Maple Drive should be right here. I wonder if the residents are at home or if anyone has seen them lately," Nester remarked looking over Mulder's shoulder.
"Maybe they coiled their garden hose the wrong way," Mulder joked. "Or worse, had patio furniture out on their deck!" he chuckled and shook his head. "Nothing better worth dying over."
The two continued down the left passage toward Gogolak's house in silence, stopping occasionally to comment about the consistency of the dirt that the walls were made from. When they arrived in the area of Gogolak's residence, they were unable to find a portal into the crawl space from the tunnel. After looking around for a few minutes they stared at each other blankly.
"Nester," Mulder called to his friend. He bit his upper lip and tilted his head in thought. "Aren't you an expert on Tibetan culture?"
Nester laughed nervously. "I wouldn't say an expert," he replied. "I spent a couple of weeks in Tibet in college. Why?"
"Isn't it true that thought forms can appear as apparitions or phantoms and become separate living beings via the mental abilities of a master at the craft?"
"Whew, I don't know, Mulder," Nester replied. "That's a stretch. I mean, it's believed that a master can create a Tulpa … a magic formation that is generated through powerful concentration of thought. It's alleged to be able to take a living form that others can see. But it ultimately exists only in the mind of the creator and will either be destroyed when the creator dies or willed to extinction."
"So it's possible?" Mulder questioned, nodding his head.
"Yeah," Nester sighed. "But there've been no documented cases in the past eighty years or so."
"Okay, just humor me a minute," Mulder continued. "From what I've read, a thought form that becomes a separate entity will hold onto the original reason for creation for a while, but then, like a child, develops a mind of its own."
"That's the basic premise," Nester agreed not sure where Mulder was going with it.
"And it could turn demonic or evil?"
"Yeah … it could go that way," Nester replied.
Mulder nodded. "So what if you weren't a master at the craft … but just learned a few tricks … and you created a thought form that got away from you?"
Nester shook his head. "Like I said before, there are no documented cases in the past eighty years. What're you thinking?"
"Gogolak. He runs an import furniture store and travels to Tibet on buying trips. What if someone taught him the basics of creating this Tulpa phantom and he tried it here?" Mulder began.
"Why would he need it? If he was lonely, he could just make friends," Nester ventured.
"No … not to make friends ... to keep people out."
"Oh, like people who coiled their garden house the wrong way or had friends that blared their music out their car windows?"
"Right."
"Okay, but people just don't disappear without a trace."
"Well, they do around here," Mulder replied curtly.
"What about the stuff in their houses? Their cars and furniture?" Nester countered.
"Have you found Big Mike's minivan yet?" Mulder asked him. When Nester shook his head, Mulder nodded at him. "That's why we're down here. Come on," he motioned and began to walk toward the park through the tunnel.
They'd walked about five minutes when Nester tripped over something sticking up in the dirt. "Mulder, hold up!" he called as he backed up and pointed his flashlight down at the object that had caused him to trip.
Mulder walked back to where Nester was kneeling and pulled his pocket knife out of his vest. He dug around the object and discovered it was made of metal, green in color. After digging around it for a minute, both men looked at the each other in surprise.
"Interesting place to find a car mirror," Nester commented as Mulder wrestled the object out of the ground.
Mulder turned the mirror over in his hand. "Wasn't the Klines' SUV green?"
Nester pulled a notebook out of his vest pocket and flipped through a few pages of notes. "Yep, green Isuzu Trooper."
"How much you wanna bet the rest of the truck is around here someplace?" Mulder remarked as he pulled another evidence bag out of his vest pocket and dropped the mirror into it. He handed the bag to Nester and turned around so he could stuff it in the back of the utility vest.
"Hope you have one of those big enough to put a car in," Nester joked as he pushed the bag down the back of Mulder's vest.
"I have some tricks up my sleeve," Mulder joked as he rolled his shoulders and bounced on his feet to adjust the load on his back.
The two agents searched the area for an opening or signs that the SUV was hidden in the dirt for several minutes before continuing their trek to the park.
"So who did Scully go out with? Don't tell me it was that Cramer-geek," Nester questioned Mulder.
"Are you kidding? No! His name is Ethan Daniels. They dated exclusively before she was assigned to the XFiles," Mulder mumbled. The thought of Scully with Ethan made him shudder. "He's a producer at Channel 11."
"Oh, yeah. She talked to me about him before. He sounds a little OCD, if you ask me," Nester answered, looking back at Mulder. "You're not spying on her, are you?"
"Hardly. I accidentally saw them together," he answered ruefully.
"Accidentally?" Nester arched his eyebrows.
"Seriously! Friday night before we came out here … she told me that she was meeting a friend for dinner. I was on my way to the Y to play basketball. As I was driving out of the parking garage, I caught the two of them on the street just down from the garage," Mulder replied as the memory replayed in his head. He had turned the opposite direction from his house and caught Scully and her friend locked in an embrace that was hardly just friendly.
"A friendly dinner? Harmless," Nester muttered.
"It was hardly just friendly. He put a lip lock on her like …. like I wanted to break his nose," Mulder shook his head to clear the image.
"What?"
"I'm not talking friendly peck on the cheek either," Mulder revealed, shaking his head. "It was some serious tongue action."
"Maybe she saw you and did it on purpose," Nester countered. "To make you jealous."
"I don't think she saw me," Mulder replied. "We had a discussion about our 'wounds' last week and I brought it up. She acted like it was no big deal." Mulder grunted as the thoughts formulated in his head. "She can claim that they're just friends all she wants, but it doesn't fly with me. I know her too well … There's no in-between with her. It's all or nothing. She's either 'just friends' and nothing happens or she's intensely wrapped up in it and it's much more."
"So, you think she's sleeping with Mr. Evening News then?"
"I suspect that he's her fallback guy," Mulder rambled, conjuring up images in his mind that were starting to make him …. jealous.
"Just like how Diana is your fallback?" Nester smiled at him. He pointed at Mulder and laughed. "Ahh, I got you!"
Mulder looked over at his friend and shook his head. He hardly wanted to admit that his summation of Ethan was the same as Scully's view on Diana, but he had no other argument. "Point taken," he muttered as he gave in.
"I agree with you to a point as far as her intensity level goes, but I think she has a reckless side that gets her in trouble. She hangs herself out there for the "all bets in" round and then loses her nerve and has to pull back," Nester countered trying to make Mulder feel better about the mud in his face.
"What? Scully is not reckless," Mulder argued.
"What about Ed Jerse?" Nester reminded him. "You don't call that reckless?
"Oh, that guy," Mulder sighed. That was another sore subject between the two of them that Mulder never brought up. His mind flashed back to that fateful phone call he'd received from the Philadelphia field office informing him that she was in the hospital after an attempt had been made on her life. The memory of "that" feeling washed over him again and made his stomach queasy. Nester was still going on in the background about the incident with Jerse, but he didn't have all the facts straight.
"…. lets the guy talk her into a tattoo in the shape of a bulls eye on the small of her back and then spends the night at his house? Of course she claimed didn't sleep with him … which is probably why he tried to kill her the next day," Nester droned on.
Mulder butted into his monologue. "That's not true, I happen to know for a fact that they did sleep together," he replied flatly.
Nester glanced over at him. "When we were stuck in the mine shaft she told me that she didn't," he countered in Scully's defense.
Mulder looked at Nester and shook his head. "That would be inaccurate."
"When did she tell you?"
Mulder bit his lip. "She didn't, I found out another way." He turned around and looked at Nester, tilting his head slightly.
Nester stared at him for a second, trying to understand what he meant by that when the light bulb suddenly flicked on. "Dude, you didn't!" Son-of-a-bitch processed her panties through the crime lab! Nester realized quickly. "That's cold!"
"Stop!" Mulder countered pointing his finger at him. . "It wasn't like that….She was a crime victim and I had every right to process her clothing. It was all done by the book. Skinner signed off on it."
"Uh huh. Considering you were secretly in love with her," Nester added. "Talk about conflict of interest!"
Mulder was quiet for a moment and then looked over at him. "What would you have done in my shoes? She was on a case that I assigned her to and meets up with some freak who tries to kill her," he hissed through gritted teeth. "I get "the phone call" because I'm her emergency contact and technically her boss. When I get to the hospital, the senior agent from the field office hands me an evidence bag containing the clothing that she was wearing at the time of the attack, which consisted solely of her bra, panties and a man's white cotton shirt. Don't tell me you wouldn't have processed the clothing for the same reasons I did."
Nester stepped back with his hands up. Okay, I obviously hit a nerve, he thought as he tried to calm Mulder down. "Relax dude. Chill. It's just a little ironic, considering your feelings for her. You were completely within the protocol." Nester chuckled a little and shook his head. "Scully is a better liar than I'd given her credit for …the version she told me in the mine was very convincing."
"I don't think she really has a handle on what exactly happened that night," Mulder replied with a far off look in his eye. "The drug from the tattoo had a hallucinatory effect on her system, which changed her perception of events. The same thing happened to Mr. Jerse. He thought he was hearing voices that directed him to attack and kill his victims."
"Wait! Isn't the file stored in your office?" Nester asked, trying to understand why Scully wouldn't have known Jerse had sex with her. "She's had to have read it. I know I would have."
"The file is in our office, but the test results aren't. Skinner has them in a different room," Mulder explained. "Anytime an agent is attacked and "those" type of tests are run, the results aren't kept with the case file. They're separated for the agent's privacy."
Nester's eyes opened up and he pulled his head back in surprise. "Wow, we're allowed privacy in the FBI? I'm shocked."
Mulder looked over back at him and laughed. "I'm sure if some burly dude tried to wrap you in a naked pretzel, you'd want to keep that information confidential."
Nester leaned against the side of the tunnel as he replied. "I'd want to keep it confidential, but you and I know that there are no secrets in the F…. what the fug?" The wall he was leaning against suddenly gave way and Nester struggled to keep himself from falling over. When he regained his balance, he switched the camera on and turned around to see what had happened to his support.
Mulder pushed against the wall and watched in amazement at it slid back, revealing a large open cavern. "This must be the circle," he said as he scanned the room with his flashlight. The light bounced off a metallic object buried in the dirt and Mulder walked toward it with Nester following close behind.
With a little effort between the two, they manage to dig out a bumper, wheel well and rear quarter panel of a red vehicle.
"Who had the red minivan?" Mulder asked breathing heavily from the exertion.
Nester sat back on the dirt and wiped the sweat off his brow. He pulled the notepad out of his pocket and flipped the page again. "Jansen," he coughed out as he tried to catch his breath. "Single mom." Nester stood back and looked around the cavern. "The real question should be how the hell did it get down here?"
Mulder stood up and walked the perimeter of the area, pushing against the sides as he passed them. When he pushed against the wall directly behind the van, it moved slightly. "Nester!" he called as he pushed his weight against it. The panel very slowly moved back, opening to another small room. The two men walked into the area and immediately noticed a difference in the ground.
"This is steel," Nester said looking down at what he was standing on.
Mulder illuminated the wall and discovered they were standing on a rudimentary lift system. He pulled the GPS tracker out of his pocket and locked in their coordinates.
"Where are we now?" Nester asked as he scanned the room, capturing it all on video.
"Looks like we're near the park," Mulder said, pulling the map of the subdivision out of his jean pocket. "If I'm reading this right, the maintenance shed is right above us."
"Check one thing off our "to-do" list," Nester remarked. "The cars are driven over to the maintenance shed when no one is looking and stowed down here. Now, where are the residents?" he asked as he made a final scan of the room.
Mulder looked around and bit his lip. His hunch that he brought up to Scully was right on track. "I think they're down here too."
"What do ya mean? Whacked in their house and then buried down here?" Nester asked as he shut the camera off. "Hey, check the battery pack for me, will ya?" he asked as he turned his back to Mulder.
Mulder pulled the battery out of the pouch and checked the strength level. "That's why I was asking about the Tulpa. What if Gogolak willed a creature into existence that lives in the dirt? In the beginning he willed it to life to take care of little problems he didn't want to deal with the right way. As its power grew, Gogolak's power grew and the two of them got out of control together." He shoved the battery pack back into the pocket. "It's got about 15 minutes left."
"Mulder, you've been watching too many science fiction movies," Nester remarked as he turned to face him. "Creatures don't just materialize out of the dirt. That's crazy talk."
Mulder wagged his finger at him. "Ah, you forget … I live in the paranormal. Look, I saw a huge creature towering over my neighbor's wife ready to pounce on her and I chased it around their house where it just disappeared into thin air."
"Okay … but what makes you think it's made out of dirt?"
Mulder arched his eyebrows and smiled. "Later that night when I went back to investigate the yard, I found this huge hole in their front yard that was covered with grass and a big pile of dirt in another neighbor's backyard right in the same area that I lost the creature. The next morning when I was out for my run, I ran by there again and the dirt was completely gone."
"Maybe someone shoveled it up," Nester replied, playing devil's advocate.
"Not likely... unless they used a vacuum. It was like it was never even there," Mulder replied flatly.
A loud clunking noise caught their attention and they both looked up at the ceiling. Mulder put his finger to his lips and pointed back to the panel. Both men made their way out of the small room and pushed the wall back into place as best they could, leaving a slight opening so they could watch what was happening.
Nester took the front position from the other side of the wall and turned the video feed back on. The clunking sound became louder and the small room slowly flooded with light. Both men watched in amazement as the lift settled down on the steel platform carrying a white Ford Escort. Mulder and Nester quickly back tracked through the other cavern and out into the tunnel, pushing the second wall nearly closed behind them.
With the camera filming the action, Nester and Mulder watched as the wall opened and an unidentified man drove the car into the cavern to the right of the minivan. He exited the vehicle and walked over to a panel on the wall, flipping a lever. Another clunking sound began to resonate in the cavern and Mulder watched in awe as a trap door above the vehicle opened dumping a huge pile of mud on top of the car. The drop continued until the car was completely covered and then the man flipped the lever again and left the cavern.
Mulder and Nester stared at each other in disbelief for several seconds until Mulder motioned for them to leave. "Let's get out of here," he whispered and backtracked out of the tunnel.
They retraced their steps back to the portal under his house in short order and climbed back into the safety of Mulder's living room quickly. Mulder verified the video was captured on the tape and repacked the gear, while Nester took a quick shower and donned his surfer boy outfit again. Nester was sitting at the breakfast bar drinking a glass of water when an unexpected visitor walked in the front door.
The big orange truck parked in their driveway stood out like a sore thumb as Scully turned the corner from the gate. What is that thing in the driveway? she wondered as she closed in on their house. "Mulder is going to get us killed," she muttered under her breath as she pulled next to it. Scully parked the van and stared at the truck, mystified about who it belonged to and what it was doing parked in her driveway. She could only imagine what the neighbors were thinking as they hid behind their mini-blinds.
She gathered her things and climbed out of the van, giving the monster truck one final glance before making her way to the front door. She keyed the door and walked into her house, finding a surprise waiting for her just inside the door.
"Nester!" she exclaimed catching sight of him sitting at the breakfast bar. "I should have guessed you'd be driving that ... thing out there."
"Laura!" he responded as he turned to greet her. He stood from the stool and walked in her direction. He attempted to hug her but she held her hands up in front of her.
"Sunburn," she whispered, shaking her head.
"Oh, yeah," he said and leaned over to kiss her instead. "Hi," he mumbled as his lips touched her check.
"Hi, yourself," Scully replied as he kissed her cheek and then walked around him to put her purse and bag down on the table by the door. "What are you doing over here?"
"Oh, R-Rob and I were at the park playing basketball," he said nonchalantly, sitting back on the stool.
Scully looked around the first floor and gave Nester a confused look. "Is there someone else here?" she whispered to him in a barely audible voice.
"No. Rob's upstairs taking a shower," Nester replied with a perplexed expression on his face. "Why?"
Scully breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head. "Because we don't use those names around the house unless someone is near," she answered swatting him on the arm.
"Ow, I didn't know," Nester laughed and made the quotation sign in the air. "I thought you two were all 'undercover' on this assignment."
A rumbled of feet on the stairs caused Scully to turn around and greet Mulder as he came at her from the landing. He was dressed similarly to Nester and carried a duffle bag as well.
"Hey, honeybunch," Mulder called to her nervously. "What're you doing home already?" He ran his hand across the back of her neck and pecked her on the lips.
"Mulder, I've been gone two hours," she started and then glanced at both of them. They're up to something, she realized catching the looks they gave each other. "Okay, out with it." She said to them firmly. "What's going on here? What're you up too?"
"Nothing," they replied in unison, which made them look all the more guilty.
"Uh huh, right," Scully replied giving Mulder "the death" stare.
"Okay…" Mulder sighed looking at the floor with a guilty expression on his face. "We're going to take Nester's truck off roading," he muttered.
Scully stared at him for another second to check for a secret wink between them, something her mother used to do when she was questioning Melissa and her about their activities. Oh, my god, I'm turning into my mother, Scully thought as she watched Mulder's face. Mulder's right. Suburbia is wearing on me. Scully ran her tongue over her lips and sighed. "So that's why that thing is parked in the driveway?"
"Yeah. It's my nephew's" Nester replied relaxing slightly. "Isn't it awesome?"
"Do you want my honest opinion about that?" Scully asked walking around the breakfast bar into the kitchen. "I thought you were scheduled to go back to DC yesterday," she added opening the refrigerator to stare into in blankly.
"Not anymore," Nester replied as Mulder discreetly pushed the CC&R binder in his direction. "The field office was so impressed with my abilities that they assigned me another case. Dris caught an early flight this morning, he should be landing in a couple of hours."
As he answered Scully's question, Mulder wrote "671 Maple" on a piece of paper and handed it to him. Nester nodded and shoved it in the pocket of his shorts. He hooked his duffle bag with his foot and pulled it closer to the chair, getting ready to stow the CC&R binder into it while Mulder distracted Scully.
"What are you rooting for in there?" Mulder asked her, turning around to the refrigerator. He blocked her line of sight to Nester with his body and gave Nester the precious seconds he needed to stow the binder in his bag.
"I don't know. I'm hungry but I don't have a taste for anything," Scully said looking up at him.
"I'm glad to see you have your appetite back," Mulder replied. He leaned over and kissed her on the lips, grabbing her full attention as he did so. When he pulled back from her lips, he trailed kisses up her nose to her forehead and ran his hand gently down her back.
Scully felt the rush pull at her like a magnet and blew the breath she had been unconsciously holding out her lips. "Don't start anything you can't finish, Mulder," she whispered as he rested his hand on her hip.
Mulder smirked at her challenge, but secretly was waiting for the "all clear" sign from Nester. He had counted the seconds out in his head and thought Nester should have had the binder stowed by the count of twelve, but he hadn't given him the sign. Mulder pulled Scully into his embrace and planted his lips against her again, walking her back against the counter. He probed her mouth with his tongue while he put gentle pressure on the trigger spot at the base of her skull. He felt her relax against him, and fall into the passion of the kiss. Mulder felt himself getting sucked into the moment when Nester cleared his throat loudly behind them.
"Geezus you two… come up for air!" He yelled at them from the breakfast bar.
Mulder let go of Scully and turned to face him with a sheepish grin on his face. Scully's face was completely flushed and she immediately opened the refrigerator door again to hide.
"I think those wedding bands have gone to your head," Nester added winking over at Mulder.
Mulder rolled his neck and looked at his watch. "Well, I guess we'd better getting going before I change my mind," he mumbled.
"See ya La …. Scully," Nester said as he stood from the stool and picked up his duffle bag. He made his way to the front door and walked outside.
"I'll call you later Scull," Mulder said as he leaned over to kiss her again. "We'll pick that up again later tonight," he smiled at her and swatted her on the butt. Mulder walked around out of the kitchen, scooped up the other duffle bag, and followed Nester out the door.
"Mulder! Don't forget about our dinner plans!" Scully called out to her partner as the door slammed shut in the foyer.
"Geezus Christ!" Lieutenant Peters exclaimed as he watched the video from Mulder and Nester's explorations on the monitor in his office. The gray haired lieutenant ran a hand over his weathered face and through his hair. "Why the frick didn't I call the feds in on this earlier?" He paced around the room in frustration and then leaned over his desk and stared at the TV screen. "We've been working this case for two fricken years without so much as a toilet paper roll as evidence and you swoop in and find the cars in less than a week!"
Mulder shifted his weight from foot to foot and tried to put the evidence in perspective for the lieutenant. "I don't think you should beat yourself up over it, Lieutenant," Mulder started. "It was your idea that got us to this point. You knew the only way to bust it open was to buy the house and send in an undercover team to blend in to the neighborhood."
"Agent Mulder, with all due respect," the lieutenant grumbled. "Stop trying to blow smoke up my ass!" He sat down in his chair with a defeated expression on his face and chuckled at the irony of it all. "How did you figure that out anyway?" he asked nodded toward the video screen.
Mulder picked the remote up from the desk and paused the playback on the white Ford Escort. "I befriended a couple of neighborhood kids at the park by playing basketball with them. One is home schooled, and yesterday morning he let it slip that the houses with crawlspaces are connected to the tunnel system and that there were cars hidden in the tunnels."
"And your house has a crawlspace, I take it?" the lieutenant added and watched Mulder nod his head. "Well, what do we know about this white car? Obviously it's a new arrival," he added pointing at the screen.
"Based on our observations of the terrain in the tunnels, the dirt directly under 671 Maple Drive appeared wet or moist from being over watered," Nester ventured. "Agent Mulder and I suspect the car belongs there. I requested an undercover officer check out the residence. We're just waiting for him to get back with the findings."
The lieutenant steepled his hands in front of his face and closed his eyes in thought. Twenty four months on this case and it blows wide open in less than a week. He was appreciative of the Bureau's help on this and grateful that Agent Mulder and his team were decent about it … keeping the department involved, not gloating over their victories. The whole experience had changed his impression of the Bureau for the better. The lieutenant sighed heavily and looked up at Mulder. "Okay … I suppose you have a good idea where the bodies are as well?"
Mulder pursed his lips and nodded. "I have a suspicion that they're buried in the yards, but investigating that covertly is going to require some creative thinking," Mulder shared with the man.
"That's why Agent Driscoll and a couple of your officers are scouring the Association's Covenants, Code and Rule book looking for a loop hole that will get us in there with an excavation team," Nester added from the other side of the room.
"You don't want to just get a search warrant?"
"No," Mulder shook his head. "They appear to be the master's at cover-up. I think we need to play this slow
The lieutenant nodded in agreement. "You're completely right, Agent Mulder," he replied. "Those people have a code of silence, that's for sure." He drummed his fingers on the desk and was quiet for a moment. "Okay, we'll play this your way. Use whatever resources you need."
TBC